Yes thank you to our Porter .. Basanta he was lovely… always watching out for me.
I loved , loved, loved this day and Dingboche. I could go back to this part of the world every year.
Ok there is a fuzzy bit in the video but – who cares….
Who is coming next time we trek here ?
Don’t forget to check out my Home Page Our Itinerary for our Everest Base Camps Treks
From the moment you walk out of Lukla to trek to Everest Base Camp the views are beautiful. The higher you go the more amazing the views, higher again the views become breathtaking panoramas. Looking through the hundreds of photos taken by The Trainer and our two treks through the Khumbu, the beauty is commonplace and you gravitate to the most spectacular photos. It is easy for a good photo to go unnoticed. Like this one.
I found it hiding in among some spectacular shots in my media viewer. When I looked closer I realised it was a great photo that had it all. The long milky river, the panorama of mountains, the track where you walk, the close up of the plus 4,4oo metres ground where I was standing and the settlement of Pheriche below in the distance. This walk on day nine of our trek from Dingboche (4,360 metres) to Dughla (4,600 ) was a relatively easy walk. And we took a side walk off behind Dughla to have a look at the lake.
An here is the view or should I say panorama taken down in the valley just before we walked through Pheriche. Sometimes I still can’t believe that’s me in the red jacket and our porter guide walking alongside. I walked through that magnificent landscape. Spectacular, hey?
Want to know more about the trek. I have just updated the first day of the trek in 2013. It has a few interesting links added. Everest Base Camp Trek Lukla to Phakding
The Lukla to Kala Pattar Elevation Profile may inspire you increase your step training.
Don’t forget to check out my home page for a overview.
On the Everest Base Camp trek you might see mountain goats, magnificent eagles and other beautiful birds but the yaks were my favourite along the trail.
These hardworking animals are the delivery vans on the EBC trail. There are no roads. Everything goes up and down on the back of a donkey, yak or a porter.
I loved the sound of the yak bells as they approached. Hearing the bells is a signal to find somewhere safe to stand on the mountain side and wait while they pass. The first rule of the track. If you are caught standing on the outside of the path you risk being knocked off the side of the mountain. The baby yak in the video had his own plans about which path he would take.
The walled sections of grassland above are yak pastures between Shomare and Dingboche. Not only do these wonderful animals carry packs and food up the trail they also provide fuel. The woman was collecting dung from the yak pasture to dry to use for cooking and heat.
A young girl resting with her basket full of yak dung behind her.
Yaks, well really the naks which are the females, provide milk which in turn is made into cheese which you probably will find on top of your pizzas on the trek.
This guy just would not move. I really think he wanted his photo taken. Say Yak Cheese!
Many travel experiences provide possibilities of interactions with animals, wild ones if you are lucky.
Some animal travel memories of mine are seals on Kangaroo Island when I was a child, monkeys in Bali, passaperos (dog walkers) and their packs of dogs in Buenos Aires, llamas in Argentina and a day spent riding camels in the desert in Rajasthan. But hundreds of dolphins in the mouth of the Gambia River was probably my most magic wildlife experience. It took us totally by surprise and was amazing. Do you have any special memories of animal encounters while you traveled?
Other I things I loved on the Everest Base Camp Trek.
Unbelievably most of the photos and the video show yaks without loads! Which means they were on return journeys. The photos were taken in 2015 when the season was extremely slow after the earthquakes. I’ll have to get a good full load photo next time.
There is a difference between basic and simple. Especially when you are traveling.
Recently I posted about accommodation on the EBC trek being basic. A comment from a fellow blogger (thanks Miriam) made me rethink how I had labelled the accommodation. It is the very fact the Everest Base Camp Trek is basic, makes it so good. Basic can be seen as a negative. So simple, not basic, is a better word to use. Because it is the simplicity of the EBC trek that makes it so special.
Walking into Gorak Shep the end of the Everest Base Camp Trek
The simplicity of the accommodation, the simple food, the every day simple routine. The early to bed, early to rise. Get up, get dressed, eat, leave. Which way to go? Up or down. Maps to consult? No, not really, there is one path. Just like a pilgrimage, you know where you are going and why. The people you meet, the common quest, the simplicity of the destination but the challenge of getting there make it special. A quest so well rewarded.
No phone calls, television, emails and internet access is limited. All put into perspective in the big landscape or simple path you are on. Up or down.
And yes, simple meals too. This simple meal below in simple surroundings is one I remember well. A bowl of hot simple potato soup made with the broth and grated potatoes. A well earned bowl of soup after a hard steep walk out of Namche Bazaar and a 600 metre trek down hill to the river to Phunki Tenga. Three hours plus of a hard work, it was a meal well earned. A simple meal, simple surroundings the roar of the river, the sound of the yak bells as the yaks pass. Simple stunning beauty all around.
So back to the food, yes the food is simple. But it is good. It is organically grown along the track and cooked in a simple kitchen.
A meal in Namche Bazaar above.
This bowl of potato soup was al fresco at Debouche on the trail down. In a stunning landscape. How much simpler and more beautiful can you get?
The umbrellas above, weren’t the norm. The Sherpa stew was.
Simple, but addictive. Everest Base Camp Trek too simple to say no.
Need more convincing? 25 Reasons to Trek To Everest Base Camp
Trekking to Everest Base Camp ? Are you up to it?
Talk about an “extreme foodies wish Luist”. Would love to know what they all ate. If you could do this where would it be ?
Chefs are trekking thousands of feet to prepare fancy food in the cold
Trekkers pass through a glacier at the Mount Everest base camp, Nepal.
The peaks of fine dining just keep getting higher and higher.
A caravan of roving chefs and their 15 guests is currently making its way up the Himalayas toward the base camp at Mount Everest, where, 17,500 feet above sea level and amid the lashing winds and bone-penetrating chill of the Nepalese winter, food will be served.
The One Star House Party, as the project has been dubbed, is preparing 16 more such destination dining experiences, one a month, through 2018, though not all of the destinations are so extreme. Among the chefs involved is James Sharman, a onetime chef de partie at Noma, the influential, soon-to-close restaurant that put Copenhagen on the global culinary map.
The Nepal journey is costing…
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Here I am walking through Periche looking like the Michelin Man. There are lots of terrible shots of me on the trek with hat hair, up way too close etc. Showers are a rare thing on the track, so is clean hair and there are no mirrors. Complete with the hat and given today is the first Tuesday in November, the day of the nation stopping Melbourne Cup (horse race) I decided on a twist the Fashion on the Track theme. Tongue in cheek of course. However my ensemble does show off some accessories that you shouldn’t leave home for Everest Base Camp without. Continue reading
The last bridge before Gorak Shep, the last place with lodges before Everest Base Camp. That’s me and our porter guide just ahead. Continue reading
Italian Weather Pyramid out of Lobuche in the direction of Gorak Shep
The Weather Cam at Everest Base Camp or thereabouts. The Trainer walked there by himself. I decided to stay in the lodge and rest up for the next to big days. Built by the Italians he joked he was in search of a short black coffee …
Our lodge in Dingboche
Above is the suspension bridge at Upper Phakding. We stayed at the lodge just above the end of the bridge in the photo on the way back down from our 2013 trek. The bridge is the site of my donkey video.
When planning our trek for late September we expected some rain. Continue reading
Keeping the slow donkeys moving from the safety of the sidelines. CHUK!
Rule Number Two: Give Way to the donkeys too.
I posted this video on Facebook on our first trek in November December 2013. It was taken on my iphone and shows the number of donkeys on the trail and why you don’t want to be on the bridge at the same time as donkey herd. Continue reading
trek n.1. a long difficult journey, esp. on foot 2. SA journey or stage, esp by ox wagon 3. make a trek – trekker
In September 2015 my husband and I flew to Nepal to trek to Everest Base Camp. At the departure hall at Melbourne Airport saying goodbyes to our adult daughters, the eldest hugged her father and said
“Dad, go easy on Mum remember it’s her holiday too.” She turned to me and said “Mum, ….man up.”
And with that sage advice… Continue reading
Climb Every MountainA year ago today we, The Trainer (my husband and not a personal trainer) and I flew from Melbourne into Kathmandu to trek to Everest Base Camp. We nearly cancelled the trip because of the earthquakes but had trained so much, we agreed to go. Two years earlier we had gone even though I didn’t really want to go. We trained hard for the trek, we walked, biked, stepped, climbed, stretched and hiked for six months and, in fact over trained, but we didn’t make it to Base Camp. There is a story there, because we should have and could have.
In September 2015 we were well and truly prepared to try again. We had trained for six months – general fitness then building up to more intense training in the last three months, treadmill, walks, bike rides, stretching, stair training and I guess you could say hiking. I looked up a few definitions of hike.
hike walk for a long distance, especially across country.
“they hiked across the moors” synonyms: walk, go on foot, trek, tramp, trudge, traipse, slog, footslog, plod, march
We hiked, I trudged and tramped all over the river area near where we live and all over the hills in our neighbourhood with our trekking gear, boots, packs and my trekking poles. The Trainer refused to use trekking poles.
This was much to the puzzlement of commuters passing by and to the amusement of hospital patients in their beds looking out the hospital windows onto one of our practicing hills. No sooner did I arrive at the top of the hill than the Trainer pointed back down to the bottom, striding off leaving me resting at the top. I would get to the bottom and he strode back up telling me how many more times he wanted me to go up and down. Each training session he would add a little more water to the bottles in my back pack slowly increasing the weight. Which brings me to the second definition which resonates with me:
hike – to walk or march a great distance, especially through rural areas, for pleasure, exercise, military training, or the like.
At 4200 metres on the Dingboche Ridgetop
Above Pangboche
The Best Travel AdventureI had travelled through the Sahara and been to Timbuktu, seen Iguazu Falls and Rio and lived in Milan and Buenos Aires and was about to go on the trip of my life but I didn’t know it. I sat on the couch with a small pot of expensive lip moisturiser in my hands, crying. Continue reading
A post about the porters on my Everest Base Camp Trek blog is long overdue. The Daily Post Daily Prompt Recharge has given me a perfect launching point.
Trekking through the Khumbu you see resting points for porters to unload, rest and recharge. These resting spots are at a height so the porters can easily unload and reload onto their backs without having to lift their load from the ground. 
The photo shows the typical oversized baskets called a doko used by porters. The T-shaped wooden walking stick at the bottom left of the screen is called a tokma. Continue reading
Yes I agree this is not a brilliant photo. But it is the only one from our Everest Base Camp trek with a reflection. Our, being me and The Trainer. And there were no mirrors either and I could have done with one of those.
Photos of reflections in water are rare on the EBC trek . The rivers are running too fast Continue reading
Blogging U Photography Day Six: Solitude
Last year in Nepal “connecting” started with learning a few words of Nepalese at the small hotel we stayed in Kathmandu. People always respond well if you have a go at speaking their language, they love it. My choice of words might seem strange. I learnt Continue reading
